Farewell Koz

I was wrapping up my day at work this afternoon when I saw the really difficult news on Facebook.  At first, I thought it was just an announcement about the Cardinals picking up the option for Jaime Garcia's 2016 option.  Jaime had a good year and the announcement on his option was expected today.  However, after reading a little bit further in the Cardinals Facebook post I saw the news........

I was honestly hoping that Peter Kozma would be gone long ago, but he managed to make it an entire season with the Cardinals.  In fact, he is now five years into his Cardinals career.  During his five seasons with the Cardinals he has posted a slash line of .222/.288/.293 with an OPS+ of 61.  This year alone Kozma managed to get into 76 games with a line of .152/.236/.152 with an OPS+ of 9.  The average player has an OPS+ of 100.  Kozma was a 9.  He had no extra base hits in 76 games.

Just for the sake of comparison, Michael Wacha, terrible hitting pitcher had a slash of .154/.214/.173 with an OPS+ of 7.  Wacha also hit a double.  Again, I am not sure how Kozma stuck around the Cardinals this long.  However, rather than dwelling on the fact that Kozma is just about the worst player in the Majors, let's focus in on a few positives.

First, there was the playoff game against the National in 2012.  You know, the game where the Cardinals used their #DevilMagic to beat the Nats after being down 6-1.  The Cardinals fought back to tie the game in the ninth inning when Kozma faced Drew Storen with two runners on base......

Second, Kozma was a former first round draft pick of the Cardinals.  As a baseball card collector we all know the routine.  Guy gets drafted, guy gets baseball cards, we dive in and get as many as we can.  In the long run card collectors always hope for the best, but there are always a few of those guys who end up... well, being released.  Here's a look back at my favorite Kozma card: 

I am not going to trade it, or sell it, but I will keep it my one of my boxes of autographs.  I will have loads of memories of Kozma striking out, or grounding out, or hitting fly balls to the warning track.  Maybe, as a fan of minor league baseball, I might see him around the International League one of these days and I can add a few better memories to the Kozma file....